Men’s Sheds of WA Award Winners 2023

On Friday 3 November the winners of the Men’s Sheds of WA Shed Awards 2023 were announced.

While every Shed in WA embodies the winning categories in their own way the five award categories of Environment, Community, Men’s Health, Mateship and Craftsmanship were awarded to nominated sheds who had achieved a great level of engagement in their projects.

It was a difficult decision for the Men’s Sheds of WA team to decide who the winners should be; all the nominations were excellent examples of the amazing work Sheds do in Western Australia.

The winner of the Environment Award was the Green Head Men’s Shed for their Cash for Can’s program which helped to fund a community grant program.

Each year a grant system is advertised to distribute the profits of the Cash for Cans funds. Successful grant applicants have included Primary Schools, Bowls Clubs, St John’s Ambulance services, Fire Brigades and more, totaling some $50,000 being distributed to the local community.

The winner of the Mateship Award was Steve Kylen, Bruce Wright and the leadership team at the Melville Shed who have worked hard to get the shed off the ground.

When the Canning Men’s Shed had to close its doors Melville took in a number of their members, and have also created a space for the Canning Computer Community Men’s Shed.

The Wellbeing and Health Officer position has been expanded to become a Wellbeing Team, which recognises the breadth of activities and initiatives that foster wellbeing in Sheds.

The winner of the Men’s Health Award was the Motorcycle Men’s Shed. Shed President Gary Pontifex and the rest of the Motorcycle Men’s Shed team have harnessed the power of us-ness and taken it state wide.

The relatively new shed visit other sheds across the state, from Albany to Kalgoorlie and everywhere in between to talk about Men’s Health, and celebrate the mental health benefits of Sheds.

You can read more about the Motorcycle Men’s Shed in the second edition of the Sheds WA magazine here.

The winner of the Community Award was the Broome Men’s Shed for their project the Japanese Castle Replica.

The Japanese community of Broome had a significant beneficial impact on the early history of Broome including the commencing of the first school and through Broome’s pearling industry. Broome has an ongoing sister-city relationship with the Japanese city of Taiji. The original version of the caste replica was constructed from cardboard by  one of the Japanese pearl divers, but after some time the cardboard deteriorated. The Broome Men’s Shed built a replacement scale model to recognise the cultural diversity the Japanese divers and migrants brought to Broome and acknowledge their early history is not forgotten

The winner of the Craftsmanship Award was the Manning Men’s Shed for their Fish and Fauna art installation which was on display at the Manning Library Box Gallery earlier this year.

The artwork represented the fish and fauna found in the Swan and Canning rivers and took over 25 Shed members to help create the project.

A big thank you to all the Sheds who nominated for the Awards and a congratulations to those Sheds who won. We always look forward to hearing your Shed stories and triumphs, so please send through any projects your shed might be working on to be included in the Sheds WA magazine.

Shane Love MLA Recognises Greens Head Men’s Shed in Address to Parliament

Honourable mentions:

Fremantle Community Men’s Shed | Intergenerational initiative, working with year 6 students to build billy carts

Showgrounds Community Men’s Shed | Perth Royal Show

Brunswick Junction | Community Food Cart

York Men’s Shed | Community engagement projects

Pinjarra Men’s Shed | Model train